<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>These Dear, Unfinished Tasks by emmalobooks</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29049618">These Dear, Unfinished Tasks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmalobooks/pseuds/emmalobooks'>emmalobooks</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne &amp; Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adult Content, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn, Time Travel, Time Turner (Harry Potter), wolfstar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 06:40:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,861</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29049618</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmalobooks/pseuds/emmalobooks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the events of the Second Wizarding War, where Sybil Trewlaney has seen a new prophecy. Intent on fulfilling it, she travels across the sea to America where her path crosses with Daphne LeBlanc. Trewlaney informs her of her destiny knowing that if Daphne fails it could mean death for those she cares about. </p><p>With the discovery of the True Time-Turner, it is only a matter of time before the remaining Death Eaters try and bring the Dark Lord back to finish what he had started. To stop this, Daphne must travel back in time, to the First Wizarding War, and end Voldemort before the first prophecy can be completed.</p><p>To do this, she will need to enlist the help of a most unlikely ally. Regulus Arcturus Black.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon &amp; Lily Evans Potter, Mary Macdonald/Marlene McKinnon, Regulus Black &amp; Original Character(s), Regulus Black &amp; Sirius Black, Sirius Black &amp; Remus Lupin &amp; Peter Pettigrew &amp; James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1: First Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Set during the events of The Cursed Child and the Marauder's Era. Please, please read All The Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 on AO3, as I will not be using her work directly but some of the characterizations of the Marauders as well as their backstories may be similar. Also, it's just an amazing fic!</p>
    </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi, I'm trying to figure out how AO3 works, so if you see this, surprise! I'm trying to have part one up by 1.31.2021.</p><p>update, it's up :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>August 17th, 2015</em>
</p><p>The letter came on her eleventh birthday.</p><p>Her foster family had not remembered but she had. Eleven and with her seventh family. She had thought it was a birthday card at first, she never got mail at these places. Who would even be writing to her it’s not like she had any family.<br/>
But still, the letter had come.</p><p>Going to Ilvermorny, meant no more foster homes and no more public school. Her foster mother had tutted stating that God must be smiling at Daphne. To the older woman, only divine intervention seemed to make sense where this boarding school was concerned.</p><p>It wasn’t that hard to convince her to let Daphne go.</p><p>She packed her suitcase and when the rest of her school supplies magically arrived at their front door no one questioned a thing. They put her on the next train to the upstate Massechutes countryside without so much as a backward glance.</p><p>Being whisked off to a school to learn magic. It still seemed crazy even now.</p><p>Daphne had grown up around No-Mags. She knew she was different from other kids when one of them caught her levitating a plate a few inches off the kitchen table. That sent the other kids into hysterics and send Daphne back to the adoption center.</p><p>She learned quickly to stop doing it. Especially after family four and that encounter with the priest.</p><p>The journey seemed to fly by and before she knew it she was being ushered into a great hall with all the other first years. All of them stopped around four daunting statues. One was shaped like a huge bird, one a giant snake, the next a fierce cat, and finally a small warrior creature.</p><p>“We will call your name and you will be sorted into your house. There is the Horned Serpent, the Thunderbird, The Wampus, and the Pukwegie. The statues will see what is in your heart and decide which house is your best fit.” The headmistress had explained. Headmistress Fyrewynd was a young woman, with a severe nose and sleek black hair pulled back away from her face.</p><p>Daphne watched as kid after kid went up, a brief pause and then one of the statues would move. Riotous cheering would then ensue from the balcony above as a way to welcome in their new housemate.</p><p>“Daphne LeBlanc.” She gulped but remained call moving forward like she had seen the others do. Staring up at the statues the bird seemed the most appealing to her at the moment. She hoped that it would be the one to move.</p><p>Instead, they all did.</p><p>There was low murmuring in the crowd, a few students and teachers gasped. Daphne looked over to the headmistress with panic in her eyes. The witch returned her stare and nodded.</p><p>“In this case, my dear, you may choose whichever one you wish.”</p><p>How could she choose? She knew nothing about what that houses meant. The bird had appealed to her but the longer she stood up here the cat looked more appealing. However, the serpent was mysterious it could...She was panicking now, she had spent too much time up here she had to choose now.</p><p>“Be not afraid child,” a voice whispered into her mind.</p><p>Oddly it was familiar to her. Though, Daphne could not remember where she had heard it. Something from a half-forgotten dream. It took her another moment to realize the voice was speaking in another language.</p><p>All soft constants and rolled vowels. Yet, Daphne understood all of what it said.</p><p>“Choose us and come home. Choose us, choose us. Choose us and right wrongs, choose us and take what is yours.” Without thinking, Daphne closed her eyes and reached out her small hand, trusting the voice and letting fate decide her. Her hand connected with the cool stone of the Horned Serpent. Those whispers and anxious looks were drowned out by the cheers of those in her house above.</p><p>Fate had sent her home to the Serpent.</p><p>It also had seemed to lead her straight to Sybil Trewlaney. Or rather a young witch had.</p><p>Daphne was with the rest of the first years picking out their wants in the great hall.</p><p>“Don’t you feel it?” A brunette with square-framed glasses asked next to her. Daphne simply shrugged and nodded, she knew she should have felt connected to one of the wands like the headmistress had informed them. They had all seemed lifeless to her. She had just chosen the one closest to her, a simple wand with a simple design made of basal wood.</p><p>The girl next to Daphne prattled on like nothing was amiss.</p><p>“My mum says that at Hogwarts they don’t have this. You have to go to some shop in an alley and get them. You know Hogwarts, the British wizarding school? That’s where I’m from, Britain that is. Well, Mum is and that’s why my accent is a little funny. British mum, American TV. Anyway, I think this is a much better way to get wands. I read about the tree Isolt made her family’s wands from. And how getting them at this school was the only way to get a working wand.” The girl looked over at Daphne who had paled. She knew nothing about any of that.</p><p>She had not even known there were others like her until that letter came. Daphne composed herself and smiled back at the girl, hoping that would be enough for the girl to lose interest and walk away. She was not that lucky.</p><p>“Sorry, where are my manners my mum says I talk too much but I think I get that from her. She’s a Seer, actually, she teaches here. Divination, we can’t take her class until we’re older. Some pretty weird stuff Mum covers. Anyway, my name is Cosette, like from Les Mis, that musical with Hugh Jackman? It came out a few years ago, I think it was a book too, maybe? But a really long one I never plan on reading. Oh, it doesn’t matter. You can call me Cosi though, everyone does. Or my mum does. Only her and I. What about you?”</p><p>Daphne stood there stunned for a moment blinking a few times. No one had spoken that much directly to her save for the odd adult that came in to check her well-being at a new home.</p><p>Looking back, maybe it was fate that had made her and Cosi’s paths cross.</p><p>Would Daphne have befriended Cosette if she had known?</p><p>Though, according to Sybil later, it would not have mattered. Fate would come for her when it was time, best she prepared for it. Finding herself at a crossroads at that moment, Daphne knew she had a choice.</p><p>To stay the same as she always had been or to change. The old Daphne had been rootless, essentially a No-Mag, trying to remain silent and unnoticed for however long she could. This new Daphne could do magic, was somewhere where impossible things happen every minute of the day.</p><p>She smiled at Cosi and shook her hand. She had seen adults do it enough and Cosi seemed delighted at the contact.</p><p>“My name’s Daphne, want to be friends?”</p><p>#</p><p>
  <em>August 5th, 2020</em>
</p><p>Daphne woke with a start, momentarily forgetting where she was.</p><p>Getting sucked into the past like that was dangerous. Five years had come and gone so fast. It seemed like only yesterday she was still that uncertain eleven years old. Now she was much changed.</p><p>After selecting their wands together in that hall Cosi and Daphne remained true to their word and became friends. Glued to each other from that point forward. Bumping into Cosette’s mother had felt like a coincidence then, now Daphne was sure it wasn’t.</p><p>It was still odd to Daphne the reach of Sybil’s gift. Being a Seer and what that meant, so many people took merit in her words. Daphne supposed she had already been right about so much. It still surprised her the amounts of witches and wizards that entered their summer cottage by flew asking for one of Sybil’s readings.</p><p>Who would have thought that the only Seer left in the magical world would dress like an out of touch hippie and tell fortunes out of tea leaves?</p><p>Daphne rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. She had fallen asleep at the table again, her bones cracking as stretched and moved from the chair. The morning light was funneling in through the shades. Massachusetts’s summers always carried a hint of moisture even though they were far away from the coast.<br/>
The cottage was already getting steamy. It would be sweltering by lunchtime.</p><p>Picking up her discarded wand she gave it a gently swish and was greeted by a cool breeze that began circling around the room. Everything in this house ran on magic, completely self-sufficient with countless charms and spells in place.</p><p>However, it seemed putting in an airconditioning spell never occurred to Sybil.<br/>
The cottage was one of the few places outside of Ilvermorny that it was okay to practice magic. Normally, students were required to leave their wands behind during the summer breaks. Trewlaney, of course, had managed to circumvent this rule for Daphne. Informing Headmaster Fontaine of Daphne’s innate gifts Sybil had foreseen requiring her to practice while on breaks. Under direct supervision of course.</p><p>The headmaster had agreed, trusting the old witch.</p><p>“If that is what you think Sybil. You have a gift for the future, not many of us are so lucky.”</p><p>“I abandoned luck a long time ago, Headmaster. Now, I know to leave nothing up to chance. The fates may decide us but we must choose to listen. All of us.”</p><p>“Quite right, quite right,” Headmaster Fontaine had replied. He had smiled down at Daphne, his white mustache perfectly shaped. As if he too was in on the secret.<br/>
Sometimes, Daphne wondered if everyone knew what Sybil had planned.</p><p>Daphne noted her ability to do small spells without uttering words was improving. Before, when she had tried, she could only get a small stream of air to come out of her wand. Barely enough to cool the back of her neck. Now she could conjure a whole breeze to ebb and flow throughout the day at just the flick of her wrist.</p><p>Cosi and Sybil would be getting up soon, but Daphne figured she should at least try laying down. Stumbling down the hall she entered the small room she shared with Cosi and flopped down on her cot. She winced pulling a thick, leather-bound book from under her back that had been nestled in her sheets. The other girl was still snoring softly and Daphne sighed looking up at the wooden ceiling.</p><p>Once the household woke it would be back to the books and back to the practicing.</p><p>Daphne was not sure why so many witches and wizards were interested in legilmency, nor why Sybil had deemed it so important for her to learn. That had been their main area of study this summer and frankly, it was annoying to be able to slip into someone’s head all the time. Not to mention when Sybil made her practice occulmency and she had had a splitting headache for weeks afterward.</p><p>Maybe she could convince Sybil to let her and Cosi go into town for a bit like an end of the summer treat. Buy some things for school. Disappear amongst the No-Mags for a few hours pretending like they were a couple of girls in town for their mother. Girls who had never heard of a Dark Lord, or prophecies, and killing curses.</p><p>Girls who were free to be what they wanted, free to be selfish.</p><p>If only it were so simple. For now, Daphne could rest.</p><p>She glanced over at the nightstand. There was a little of Sybil’s sleeping draught left from a few nights ago when Cosi’s allergies had kept her up sneezing. Daphne knew she should not do it but a few hours of dreamless sleep sounded just perfect.</p><p>Knocking back the ceramic mug she was sound asleep in a matter of moments.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Disappearance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>author's note: the first part should be up! thank you so much for reading my first ever fanfic! I have also posted this story on Wattpad if you prefer reading on there.</p><p>Just a disclaimer that I am by no means a Harry Potter expert and some things I put in this story may not be canon or may not be used exactly how they were in the books. I have at this story for a Reggie Black fanfic for awhile and wanted to right it. Happy reading!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>August 31st, 2020</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The beginning of a new year at Ilvermorny was always filled with great excitement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After the sorting ceremony, the first years hurried to their classes, excitedly chattering through the halls selecting their new wands and their new friends. For Daphne, it was the beginning of her sixth year and by this point, everything was routine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After picking up her schedule she was thrilled to see she and Cosi had potions together for the fifth year in a row. Cosette was in Thunderbird meaning that Daphne was as much a staple of their common room as Cosi. The same went for Daphne’s house, where one went the other was close by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Davensmith again, huh? I know he’s your head of house so can you please tell him to lay off the essays this year? Shouldn’t we be focusing on how to make the potions instead of reading about them?” Daphne asked, carrying her textbooks in her arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Summer was still in full swing in the state of Massachusetts, the humid air tugged at her skirt. Daphne had piled her long blonde hair up in a ponytail and knew it was only a matter of time before she ditched her tie and sweater altogether. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cooling charms cast around the building at least ensured that the classrooms would be pleasant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Davensmith is old school, he hexed Tyler Bolstrum’s Mag-Top last semester. Believes everything has to be taught and learned the old-fashioned way with chalkboards and quills and parchment. Boring, but you can’t say you haven’t learned a lot,” Cosi responded back, a bead of sweat sliding down her face as the girls crossed through the courtyard. Davensmith’s classroom was by the Thunderbird dorms, near the library and far from the great hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I’ve learned that getting Jason Matthews to write my potions essays only requires a smile and a promise to meet him in the restricted section for a few minutes,” Daphne laughed and winked at her friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gross, so gross. I would rather write a ten-page paper on the importance of squeezing the eye of Newt as opposed to grinding it than ever touch tongues with Jason Matthews,” Cosi said, shuddering at the idea. Daphne’s smile only grew as she raised an eyebrow at her friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Believe me, we touch more than tongues. Besides, he’s your house’s Seeker, that’s hot. So he’s a little nerdy, so are you and I would make out with you for less than a potions essay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re such a slut,” Cosi said, laughing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you’re such a prude. And a snob, tell me what’s wrong with Jason Matthews? He could be my husband one day if I ever become the only one at this school making out with him for homework answers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had reached Davensmith’s classroom and there was a line already forming. The Jason in question was already at the front of the line. His black-framed glasses slightly askew and his red hair looked delightfully ruffled. He winked at Daphne when he saw her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing is wrong with him,” Cosi whispered. “I just think you could do better. He hooks up with so many people.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne looked down at her friend with a small smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know Cosi, believe me, it’s not serious. I’m still a virgin as you know. I’m saving myself for marriage,” Daphne replied, batting her eyelashes at Cosi who shoved her. Both girls were giggling as they took their seats inside the classroom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Davensmith began his lecture. He was a robust man, with a graying beard and unfocused brown eyes. He began furiously scribbling all the essays they had due over the next few months and the class tried and failed to suppress their groans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have had most of you for five years now, you know how I like to do things. Now, first, we will cover elixirs and how they can differ from your standard potion, the first of these we will cover is...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne fought to keep her eyes open as Davensmith droned on. The class ranged from when to use an elixir, who should use an elixir, and so on and so forth for the next hour and a half. Cosi was furiously scribbling down every word and, if Daphne craned her neck enough she could see that Jason Matthews was too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She eyed her untouched quill and parchment and sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As class came to a close, Daphne and Cosi shuffled out of class together, a grinning Jason Matthews tagging along with them. The smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks stretched when he smiled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Glad to see we have this class together Daph. We had so much fun in our fourth year. Remember those exploding potions we made?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne laughed and returned his smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I remember we were supposed to be making hair growth potions, but someone charmed the textbooks to have the wrong ingredients and suddenly everyone’s cauldrons were exploding. Got anything like that planned for this year?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just you wait and see,” Jason said with a wink, “Cosette.” He nodded before jogging off to his next class.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosi shook her head at her friend and Daphne merely shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I take it back Cosi, I’m not saving myself for marriage. If Jason writes all those essays for me this semester we can do it </span>
  <em>
    <span>in</span>
  </em>
  <span> the restricted section for all I care.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne was kidding, mainly. She could never tell Cosi that she had already learned and perfected elixirs under the guidance of Cosi’s own mother. It was wrong to keep that sort of thing from a friend, but it wasn’t a secret that Daphne could share. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she would feign disinterest and keep up the ruse that Jason was the reason her grade was so high in that class. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Honestly,” Cosi said. “I might be hooking up with Jason after this too. That list was insane, on top of the advanced herbology I’m taking I don’t think I’ll have time to eat and sleep, let alone have a social life. A quickie with Jason may be the only time this year I’ll get any action.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both girls smiled at each other and laughed again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds great to me. Maybe we can do him together, I’m sure he’d love that. Be a legend on campus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are so bad Daph,” Cosi laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways, I’ve got to go. Divination, can’t be late for your mom’s class. See you at lunch?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosi shook her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“First day, we have to sit with our houses, welcome in the newbies remember?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit, you’re right. Well, I’ll see you later, yeah? Meet you in the library?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds good, and bring Jason with you.” Cosi winked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, you know I will.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>#</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Divination was all crystal balls and tea leaves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With Sybil Trewlaney, she taught you how to see the future as well as why you should fear it. Those who had hoped to be gifted in the art soon were dismayed when they saw the effect having the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Sight</span>
  </em>
  <span> had done to their professor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Divination classroom was close to the great hall, cutting through the courtyard again, Daphne took a seat by a few of her housemates and waited for Trewlaney to arrive. Incense was lit around the room creating a smokey scent in the room. Despite the heat, a fire was going in the back of the classroom. Skeletal remains of creatures dangled on strings from the ceiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything about this room felt haunted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, have y’all seen this?” Elise Montgomery asked, setting her bag down at Daphne’s table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Elise was one of Daphne’s closest housemates. Originally from Atlanta, she claimed her southern accent was one-hundred-percent authentic. Her dark hair was braided back away from her face and she was wearing gold eyeliner that warmed her brown eyes. Elise dropped a newspaper article in front of Daphne.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was magical, the pictures on the page moving, depicting an upset elderly man as he was being hauled away by two wizards. Next to him was a middle-aged wizard with a prominent forehead scare and circular glasses, arms crossed and scowling. The headline read:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>DIGGORY VS. POTTER: TENSIONS RISE AT THE MINISTRY OVER THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW TIME TURNER</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Amos Diggory, pictured above, was escorted off the Ministry grounds this afternoon by security following a heated disagreement with Harry Potter, who now heads the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, after being promoted from Auror a few years back. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Diggory claims that a new prophecy has come to light stating that by using this new Time-Turner, his son, along with many others lost before and during the War, may be brought back. As you know, tampering with time is a capital offense. When asked for comment Potter simply stated:</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Bad things happen, unfortunate things happen. We have all lost someone who we wish we could get back. But tampering with time will only make things worse.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Diggory lost his son Cedric during the TriWizard Tournament of 1994. This event signaled the return of the Dark Lord, Voldemort, leading to the beginning of the Second Wizarding War. The Daily Prophet cannot confirm these claims of a new prophecy.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Potter a contest and witness to Diggory’s killing...</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Daphne was shocked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, she was familiar with Cedric’s story, with the whole Second Wizarding War. Sybil had made her memorize everything. Every event, every encounter for the last eighty years. There were few who were as familiar with the Wizarding Wars as she, Sybil had made sure of that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, what she was not familiar with was the mention of this new Time-Turner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where did you get this, Elise?” Daphne asked, others crowded around them trying to read the article.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My cousin, Heather who goes to Hogwarts, sent it to me. She said it’s all anyone is talking about over there. This whole thing about a new prophecy, a fucking Time-Turner has people freaking out. The rumor is there are still some old Death Eater sympathizers in the Ministry. One of them figured out how to make a Time-Turner that lets you go back however far you need to and stay as long as you want. People are scared because they think some of them may be trying to find a way to bring back...well, you know who.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Voldemort? He was killed before we were all born. We all know the story, the Horcruxes, all of that. Harry Potter was the one who killed him, stabbed him, my dad said,” Trevor Smithson piped up, curling fair hair clinging to his brow. He too was reading the article over Daphne’s shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He didn’t stab him he used the killing curse. Why would he stab him? We have magic, idiot,” Elise said, rolling her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, he stabbed him and his pet snake.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why would he stab his pet snake?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know. That’s how my dad said it happened.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think that’s right, Trev,” Daphne interjected, only half listening. Her eyes were still roaming over the article.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, it’s not. He had his soul stored in things, that why no one could ever really kill him until Harry Potter.” Elise paused and looked up at the crowd that had formed around them. Flourishing under all this extra attention. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But that’s the thing, they think they can go back and save him or help him make more Horcruxes. Or even worse, bring him to the future, circumventing his death altogether,” Elise explained, snatching the article back up, much to the protests around her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This new prophecy,” Daphne said, “what does it say?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Elise shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one knows, if we’ve learned anything in this class it’s that prophecies are all just fucked up riddles. Heather thinks it has something to do with Cedric, and according to this article, it would make sense. Having his dad going down there like that. Heather, couldn’t remember when she called me but said it was something along the lines of ‘spares being spared’, and the ‘unseen being seen’ whatever any of that means.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was no prophecy Daphne had ever heard of and for that she was grateful. She needed to speak to Trewlaney immediately after class and ask her what she knew and if this changed anything they had planned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whatever this story was, it was spreading like wildfire through the wizarding world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Focusing on this class was the last thing on anyone’s mind. Minutes ticked by and everyone was getting restless. Glancing at the massive grandfather clock on the wall, Trewlaney was now a good thirty minutes late to class.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Crazy old witch, she probably forgot about us. Too busy reading tea leaves,” someone muttered behind Daphne. She gave the Wampus girl a glare who flushed and quickly looked away. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Where was Professor?</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>As if her thoughts had summoned him, there was a loud boom as the doors were swung open and in walked their headmaster. Headmaster Fontaine was an older man, though with wizards it was hard to tell just how old. His brown tweed suit was immaculately pressed and his long white beard and mustache were impeccably trimmed. He could have been fifty he could have been one-hundred-and-fifty that was the kind of air he had about him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He marched to the front of the class and smiled at them kindly, speaking in a clear voice that was reassuring but firm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good afternoon students, happy first day of the semester. As you are aware by now, Professor Trewlaney is not here at present. For now, Professor Iklespin will be taking over starting tomorrow. You are all dismissed, have a great rest of your day.” He clapped his hands to signify the end of his speech.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The students began stuffing their things into their bags and heading out the door. Elise and Daphne were some of the only ones who lingered behind. It was Daphne who spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Headmaster, where is Professor Trewlaney?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Daphne dear, I meant to include you and Miss Trewlaney together. This is a private matter best discussed in my office.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne stood there blinking. Something felt wrong, she felt as though a string had been tied around her stomach and someone was pulling it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Professor please, just tell me. Where is she?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Headmaster Fontaine gave a small smile, kindness shining in his gray eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that’s the thing, dear. Professor Trelawney has seemed to disappear.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Lost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>September 5th, 2020</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The first week of the semester moved quickly for all the wrong reasons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After being escorted to Headmaster Fontaine’s office, where a red-eyed Cosi was still there, nursing a cup of tea, Daphne was informed of the situation. Sybil Trewlaney was gone. Missing without a trace. If she had apparated, she had done so off school grounds and with no witness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Later, it turned out she had not apparated at all, but went by floo powder, to some unknown location. Fontaine had sent out a word to the Congress informing them of the situation as well as to the Ministry in case she turned up overseas. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But as each day passed there were no new updates.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosette was taking it hard. So hard in fact, that Daphne had gotten special permission from Headmaster Fontaine to move into one of the private dorm rooms with Cosi for the time being. Normally used to house visitors or staff members, the two girls were relocated inside under the promise that they would stay diligent in their studies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so Daphne could support Cosi outside of school as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a spacious room, cool stone walls, Mayflower, the elderly groundskeeper escorted the two girls there on Monday night.  Two twin beds had been conjured form them as well as a small desk and reading light. This far into the school, they were far removed from the normal chatter from the school.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Isolated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosi had finally stopped crying by Thursday. Well, stopped long enough to return to the main dining hall where she was met with sympathy from her housemates. Few knew about Daphne’s relationship with the Trewlaney family so while Cosi was sent well wishes, Daphne supported her friend and tried to find purpose in her studies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was on that day that she had found the note.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had gone back to her dorm room to collect a few more pieces of clothing. While tugging at them she had bumped into her dresser causing a heavy, leather-bound book to clatter to the floor. It was about the Black Family, Sybil had instructed her to read over it again during the summer. Just as she had instructed her to do every summer since she came to this school. She practically had it memorized. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their family tree, their allegiances, their ultimate downfalls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne had forgotten she had left it in there and sighed. Kneeling down, she scooped the book back up only for a folded up piece of parchment to fall out of the pages. She picked it up and her hands began to shake when she read the words:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I have not vanished, I will be back. You are ready, I will bring you what you need.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>-Sybil Trewlany 31/8/2020</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Dated from the day she went missing, Daphne crushed the note and stuffed it into her pocket. She knew she ought to tell someone. Headmaster Fontaine, one of the other professors, </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell</span>
  </em>
  <span> she should tell Cosi, before all of them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she couldn’t. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Especially if this note meant what Daphne thought it did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was ready, Sybil had said. All of these years seemed to have been leading to this. All of the studying and the practicing and now it was time to see if she had done enough. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was time to see if Sybil was right about her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>#</span>
</p><p>
  <span>August 17th, 2015</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Daphne stuck close to Cosette after that encounter in the great hall, Cosi seemed thrilled to have a friend that needed her as much as Daphne and chatted to her happily about all sorts of things. Her favorite spells, how far she had gotten her quill to levitate, what it was like growing up in a house completely run by magic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A figure stopped in front of them out in the hall. She had wiry hair and wide eyes, enlarged by the thick-framed glasses she wore. A threadbare cloak in a moss green color, a long magenta skirt, the woman seemed to be muttering to herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne was about to make her way past when Cosi stopped her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mum!,” She cried. “This is my friend Daphne. Daphne this is my mom Professor Trewlaney.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The woman smiled and continued muttering something under her breath. Daphne reached out her hand tentatively, which Sybil had clasped her own hands around in an instant. It seemed impossible, but Sybil’s eyes seemed to get wider, as large as saucers as she stared down at Daphne.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My girl, it is you. You have the great power I have been searching for.” Daphne tried in vain to pull her hand away, but Trewlaney had it trapped in a vice-like grip. Even Cosette was beginning to look uncomfortable, tugging at her mother’s sleeve.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mum, let her go, we have to get to class.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Our paths will cross, Daphne. As your path will cross with those who wish it would not. Those who have come to pass and those who have not yet be. Watch for the signs, my dear, they are everywhere.” She dropped Daphne’s hand at once, patted her daughter on the head, and was on her way. Shuffling down the corridor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” Cosette said, looking down at her shoes. “Mum can be a bit weird.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was embarrassed, Daphne realized. Sure it was a little odd, but the concept of being able to do magic at all was odd. Maybe this was how wizard parents were. Daphne was no expert on either No-Mag or wizarding parents to discern a difference.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay. Really, she seems nice,” Daphne tried, and Cosi smiled up at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She is, she really is. She makes the Eton Mess, you’ll have to come by her room here and try it. Oh, what class do you have first? Potions, me too, let’s walk together shall we?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne nodded and found a strange sort of comfort in Cosette’s incessant ramblings. However, even as they walked together, Cosi’s voice could not drown out what Trewlaney had said. It seemed like a promise more than a warning.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Watch for the signs, they are everywhere</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Past</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>September 21st, 2015</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The first month of classes happened without too much fanfare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne had a lot to learn where her classes were concerned. Soon she found that she was not the only witch who had come from No-Mag families. This was a lot of student’s first time with magic as well. Having said that, no matter how she tried it seemed as if she was falling behind her peers in every subject. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had first become apparent in Charms class where she was unable to get anything to levitate. Her quill, a piece of parchment, a spec of dust, nothing would move. So while all of her peers had managed to float their inkwells a few feet Daphne was still struggling with their first lesson.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Professor Alberton had commented that her technique was flawless and her pronunciation was not the issue, which left Daphne all the more confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Must be something else dear, maybe your mind is blocking the magic. Try picturing the quill floating, yes really hard this time. That’s it yes...ahh yes, well better luck next class.” Her quill had managed to move ever so slightly, but Daphne chalked that up to be a breeze from the door being opened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Useless, a failure, that was how she felt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And it was hard to listen to Cosi who seemed to excel in everything she tried. Already the stand out in their class there was nothing Cosette could not master after a few tries. She explained to Daphne that magic flowed like a water through your body. Your wand was a way to control and shape it, like a funnel. That she should feel like her wand was a part of her, an extension of herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne had agreed but remained silent on the fact that her wand felt no more apart of her than her shoes did. It felt cold and lifeless in her hand. She did not feel like it was capable of casting a spell. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Could a wand be broken?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of that,” Cosette said after Daphne posed the question to her. Careful to make it seem like it was just hypothetical. Cosi was a good friend, but she chatted endlessly, Daphne did not want others to find out about her shortcomings. It was embarrassing to be struggling this much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose anything is possible, though. Sometimes, witches and wizards aren’t compatible with a certain type of wand. You see that a lot when wands are passed through families. But as far as one being broken, unless it is physically broken it should work. I’ve never heard of a dud wand that was created properly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So that was that it should work. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe she was a squib after all. Daphne had heard a few of her classmates whispering it in her transfiguration class when she could not turn the rat into a hairbrush. One very vocal proponent of this theory was, Veronica Ainsley, a member of the Pukwedgie house. She had severe bangs and her face was twisted into a constant sneer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know, if you can’t do it, you might as well leave. This school is for the magically gifted which it is clear you are not.” Veronica said, cornering Daphne after class.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That had stung, and Daphne had hurried off, back to the safety of her dorm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As she laid in her bed, with fresh tears falling from her eyes, rewetting the dry ones on her cheeks, she looked up at her ceiling and wished. Wished for help and for guidance on what to do. For someone who had been unsure of the magical world, she begged whoever was listening to not make her a squib. To show her this world only to have it be taken away seemed unnecessarily cruel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne said another silent prayer and fell into a fitful sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And that is when she met </span>
  <em>
    <span>it</span>
  </em>
  <span> for the first time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>#</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>In the dream she had been shoeless, freezing, stumbling through the forest outside the school in nothing more than her pajamas.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Her first thought was that she hoped she would not get in trouble. The teachers had warned everyone about the dangers of the forest. Even worse, the dangers of being caught out past curfew.  There was no path that she was following out there, her feet seemed to be moving on their own accord.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They stopped right at the edge of the dark lake.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The water was so clear the moon and stars were reflected into, like a mirror. Until a creature rose from the surface disrupting the calm water. It rose over ten feet into the air, its giant head blocking the light from the moon. The gem in the middle of its brow shinning along with those piercing yellow eyes. Its scales were smooth and black, glistening with water droplets. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>When it spoke Daphe recognized its voice immediately.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You have found me, after all this time. It is nice to see you again.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“See you again? But we haven’t met,” She replied.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It was speaking in that foreign language again. The one she never learned but understood. The words no more than a series of hisses.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Have we not? I spoke to you in the hall. You understand me, only those who have met me before can understand me. Though it is possible you did not look like you back then.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She shook her head trying to clear it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Why call me out here?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Ah yes, that question. I suppose in time you will find the answer to that. For now, I simply wanted to look upon you. It has been so long since I got to chat with someone, someone who could understand me.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I don’t know how I can understand you,” She muttered, the chilly night air seeping into her bones.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Everyone in your family can, it is how I know you are one of mine.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“My family?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Ah yes, I have said too much. All will be as it should, I am counting on it, on you.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“But why me?” She asked desperately, trying to understand how she could wake herself up from this dream. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m terrible at magic, I’m useless.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Not useless, not to me,” It said, before pausing.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Go by the tree, see if what you seek is there. It will call to you if you are ready.” The serpent’s large head dipped below the water as if it had never been there before. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The lake reflected the sky once more.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Come child, this way.” A voice on the wind tickled her ear and so her feet began to move again. And they kept moving until she was at the base of the school’s massive snakewood tree. She stared up at it in wonder. Magic seemed to be coming off of it in waves.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Free me, child, free me and take me home.” The tree seemed to say this to her. By some miracle, she had brought her wand and aimed it at the tree. Did she know a spell for uprooting a tree?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Not with that child, with your hands. Dig me out and free me, make that wand take my place.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And so she dug, and dug, and dug until she could not dig anymore. Going right under the trunk of the tree her fingernails were caked with dirt and splitters, but she did not stop. She kept going even as her pajamas were slick with mud. She kept going until she was halfway under the tree itself until her hands closed around something.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Something that was buzzing and vibrating and electric.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She wrenched it free and felt her magic flow, surging into the item. It was a wand, smooth and sleek and black. A carved handle was all she could make out. She held it next to her old wand.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Put that one back, it has done its duty. You have freed me, you own me, you control me. Rule with me.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Shoving her old wand where she had dislodged this one she stood up brushing the dirt from her hands. It had looked like a bomb had gone off in front of the tree. To not arouse suspicion, she wished she knew the spell to put back the dirt. She waved her new wand around in a circle to test its weight. It felt just as a part of her as her own hand did.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And then she watched as the ground fixed itself. Smoothing out the soil and roots until it looked as though it had never been disturbed. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I know you, child. We do not need words.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It spoke in the same language as the serpent. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That was the last thing she remembered before everything went black.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>#</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>What a wonderful dream, Daphne had felt so powerful. A little scared at first when it came to the serpent but she felt like she had finally figured out why she was meant to be here. The morning light shining in her eyes was an unwelcome reminder that it had all just been a dream. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Back to barely having any magic and being insignificant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who tracked all this dirt in here, Merlin! What is wrong with all of you? Someone called from the common room. Daphne’s eyes flew open at that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked down at her hands and yes, they were still caked with mud. Still gripping that wand she found under the tree. It was warm in her hands and her fingers were stiff from holding it all night. She lept out of bed and swished her wand, wordlessly pleading for the room to be cleaned up. And sure enough, it was, the dirt floated and way. Cleaned her hair and clothes until there wasn’t a trace of it left anywhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne stared down at the wand in wonder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the morning light, she could see how dark the wood was, not black like she originally believed but a deep brown. The handle was ornated carved in a spiral with an end shaped like a queen chess piece. It felt old. It felt powerful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She felt powerful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And from that day forward magic was never a problem for her again. She waltzed into Charms class and delighted the professor but levitating all the quills in the room at once. He clapped his hands and told her that it had to have been her mental block.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The same happened in transfiguration, turning all the caged rats into various household items. And switching them all back to their rodent form right over Veronica Ainsley’s head. She never mentioned Daphne being a squib again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Sybil Trewlaney had glimpsed the new wand she smiled and tutted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The signs, my dear. You have not missed the first one. You shall never miss one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that a new wand?” Cosi asked over lunch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, the same one it’s always been just letting my magic flow as you said.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was much more than that. That wand would be the first piece in this whole puzzle. A puzzle that only Daphne would be able to solve.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. A Prophecy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>see notes at the end :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>May 23rd, 2016</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The final day of the first year was bittersweet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After being fully submerged in the magical world, the thought of having to go back and be amongst No-Mags had no appeal. In the regular world, she could not use her wand, she could not feel powerful. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It would be a nightmare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had avoided returning thus far, being allowed to stay at the school over the holiday break, she even had Christmas with Cosette and Sybil in the teacher’s living quarters. Cosi had stayed on campus seeing as how her mother worked here. The two girls spent much of their time reading and ice skating over the frozen lake. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne could have sworn a pair of yellow eyes were watching her skate under the water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But now it looked like she would not be so lucky. Packing had been a sober affair, she was unsure where she would be placed for the summer. Maybe back to her last home, but more than likely she would be sent to a center since she would only need housing for a few months. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was still one goodbye Daphne was dreading above all others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne smoothed down her uniform and dressing robes. She might as well catch Cosi before it was too late. Crossing through the courtyard there were plenty of students weeping and hugging. Promising to call and text each other throughout the summer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mag-Phones seemed to be passed around the whole school in the final days to collect everyone’s contact information so that friends could stay in touch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the only forms of magic that were approved for use outside the school by Congress. Each was bewitched to pass as a normal phone if a No-Mag got too close to it. Like a wand, it was a conduit for magic and was powered by the witch or wizard’s own internal abilities. They were a thoroughly modern American invention.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not to mention the older students who liked to use their Mag-Tops to take notes in class. No doubt taking full advantage of the WWWW (World-Wide Wizarding Web). Where there was an advancement in the No-Mag world, the wizarding world was not far behind. Besides, all students were instructed on the rules about the outside world and that protecting the secrets of the wizarding world was paramount.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Daphne pushed her way through the cluster of students looking for a familiar curly brunette head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Daphne!” someone called, arms went around her waist, rocking her forward. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosette let out an excited squeal, still crushing Daphne to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can stay! You can stay! You can stay!” Cosi screamed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mum talked to Headmaster Fontaine and he said it was perfectly fine for you to stay with us during the summer breaks. Mum said she would even tutor you in divination! And because mom is a teacher we don’t have to leave our wands behind over the summer. Headmaster Fontaine said it was fine. Isn’t that amazing, a whole summer just you and me. Our cottage is in the neighboring No-Mag town but it’s still magical don’t worry. Mom has all sorts of protection charms in it so no one will catch us practicing magic! So what do you think, aren’t you excited?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne beamed at her friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cosi, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me neither, now let’s get your suitcase, we need to get it set with me and mum’s.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two girls rushed down the corridor screaming and jumping. The next thing they knew they were traveling by floo, a first for Daphne who thought there was no worst feeling in the world than being sucked up to Merlin knew where. They stepped out of the fireplace and into a delightfully cozy cottage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wicker furniture, a small kitchen, glass jars of all shapes and sizes holding various colored liquids, a broom enchanted to sweep the wooden floors, and books piled on books. Everywhere. Like a library had exploded in the living room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cosi, take your and Daphne’s things to your room and unpack. Daphne, I wish to speak to you, tea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne nodded as Cosette disappeared down the narrow hallway, suitcases floating behind her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil poured Daphne a cup of tea and sat opposite her at the small kitchen table. The old witch watched her carefully until she had finished her cup, placing it back on the saucer. Trewlaney snatched it up immediately, peering at the tea leaves settled at the bottom of her cup.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good, very good. Yes, this all looks right, the formation there may lead to something...but nothing we cannot fix. Yes, yes this is all very good,” she was muttering to herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um, professor?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That seemed to snap her out of her trace, leaning forward she looked Daphne directly in the eye.</span>
</p><p><span>“My dear, do you know why I brought you here?”</span><span><br/></span> <span>“To spend the summer with you and Cosette?”</span></p><p>
  <span>“No my dear, I brought you here because we do not have the time for you to squander with the muggles. No time at all. There is so much you need to be taught, so much that will need planning, and we only have so much time before you will need to be ready.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not sure I understand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How familiar are you with Voldemort?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The suddenness of her question made Daphne pause. She had heard the Dark Wizard’s names a few times around campus but she did not know much, only that he died a few years before she was born. He was evil and so were his followers, believing in blood purity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not much, professor. Only that he was evil and was killed by Harry Potter. I heard one of the other kids mention that he put parts of himself in things and that that’s why he was so hard to kill.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil cupped her chin nodding in agreement as if she was hearing this for the first time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, yes quite right you are. I used to teach at Hogwarts, I had the famous Harry Potter in my class. I’m also the reason his parents are dead, the reason so many are dead. Because of my gift, a gift that seems to be more of a curse than anything else. A curse that was wrong before and demands to be righted.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne raised her eyebrows a that not sure if Sybil was looking for her to respond. The witch carried on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I saw Voldemort’s downfall at the hands of Harry Potter, I am the reason he will never be fully gone until Harry Potter himself is dead. Where a piece of darkness remains, it will grow and fester. Those who seek His return will never stop looking for a way to bring him back. No matter the cost.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Professor, I’m not sure I understand what this has to do with me staying with you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That refocused Trewlaney.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My dear, it has everything to do with you. When I had my first vision it was the solution to the problem given the time. The only time we had available. The future. Now, there is a new path that presents itself to us. As the Dark Lord’s remaining followers try and find a way to revive him we must find a way to stop this war before it started. To kill what is already dead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, professor but I still don’t--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You, my dear girl,” Sybil interrupted, “are the way back. To preserve the future you must change the past. I was wrong before, so wrong my sight allows me to see that. Harry Potter was just a salve on an infection that will surely spread. We must eradicate the Dark Lord as well as his followers, from the inside, at the time of their uprising. Stop the wound before it is created.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And how can we do that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not we, Daphne, you. Only you can do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But why me, I’m basically a No-Mag, I can barely do anything. And I can’t time travel!” Daphne tried to control her voice, screaming at adults never got her anywhere. Maybe staying here for the summer would be a bad idea. If this was what her days would be filled with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no, it is my job to prepare you. I left it up to fate before and that is where I failed. I will handle all of that, you will just need to be prepared when the time comes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But professor...why me, I’m no one special. I don’t even know who I am, who my parents are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do, my dear, I know exactly who you are.” The old witch stood collecting Daphne’s teacup and effectively ending their conversation. The young witch could not resist and shouted out at the professor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who am I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly, the old witch turned, grim determination on her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You, my dear, are the true Heir of Slytherin. And we have much to do before you are ready.”  </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>end of part one and wow! if you aren't already follow me on TikTok, @emmalobooks and I will be posting any and all updates as they come!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Preparations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for being patient! here is the second half of part 1, plz like and share :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>September 6th, 2020</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As classes came to an end on Friday, Daphne was struggling with what to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not telling Cosi about her mother was harder than Daphne had initially thought. The crumpled note in her pocket weighing her down like a ton of bricks. She knew it was wrong not to tell her friend, but if there was one thing Sybil had drilled into Daphne’s head over the years was the importance of keeping everything a secret.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she had trudged on through Friday’s classes and hoped that Sybil would return during the weekend. With an explanation for her absence no less.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This week felt never-ending. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne could have sworn she was going crazy. Every day had seemed to drag on endlessly. Half convinced she had been reliving these days over and over, she had chalked it up to being that the topic of discussion on campus all week was the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil Trelawney’s whereabouts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girls had gotten permission from the headmaster to stay at Sybil’s cottage in the neighboring town. Cosi had told Daphne that Headmaster Fontaine had a feeling if Sybil was to return she would go there first. They were to notify the school immediately if Sybil turned up there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gossip was a special kind of poison that had affected the whole school by the end of the week. Divination class was the worst. While Professor Iklespin tried to keep the students’ focus on her, it was evident that most were preoccupied with thoughts and opinions about where their normal professor was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It seemed everyone had a theory.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I bet she went back to Hogwarts and didn’t tell anyone. My uncle had her there and he said Trelawney was a good professor but seemed to always have one foot in our world and another in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Beyond</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Martha Thomas, a Wampus, whispered to her friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right? I heard a few people on the quidditch team saying they think she was fired,” another girl, whispered back to Martha.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think it’s darker than that. My dad called me and my sister this morning, he works over in England and he says things are bad there. Old Death Eaters are becoming more vocal, who knows Trelawney had the original prophecy about Harry Potter. Maybe they snatched her and killed her before she could have another one, if they are planning on going to war again,” a boy with black hair whispered back to them before Icklespin turned around threatening to transfigure the three of them into mice.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Death Eaters rising, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Trelawney</span>
  <em>
    <span> being captured</span>
  </em>
  <span>...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you believe this, the lack of respect being shown for Trelawney? This is insane,” Daphne whispered to Trevor Bulstrom and Elise Montegomery who were at her table. They both nodded absentmindedly but Daphne carried on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean I get it, she was a little crazy, but she has a kid that goes here for fuck’s sake, who misses her. Something horrible could have happened, yet everyone is acting like it’s no more than trivial gossip.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Icklespin ended class early to the cheers of Daphne’s fellow classmates. As the professor exited the class students were quickly packing their bags eager to get their final classes over with and enjoy the first weekend of the semester. Daphne was shoving her books into her bag when Elise let out a strangled gasp next to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lock at this!” She cried and those few remaining circled around her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was an article on her Mag-Phone. Elise waved her hand and said a short incantation, taking the image on her screen and projecting it above them. It looked almost tangible as it shimmered and pulsed, the photos of the article moving.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A young girl, perhaps a few years older than Daphne, was pictured. She was thrashing violently as two wizards secured her arms into a white straight jacket. Her blue hair was stringy and dirty and her eyes were crazed, red-rimmed. Her mouth was wide open in a silent scream. The article read:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>SHE’S BACK: VOLDEMORT’S HEIR UNMASKED AND CAPTURED BY THE MINISTRY</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Delphini Diggory, pictured above, was recently revealed to be the long lost daughter of Lord Voldemort. An unknown union between him and famed dark witch Bellatrix Lestrange culminated in the birth of Delphini, near the end of the Second Wizarding War.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Posing as the niece of Amos Diggory, who early this week was in the Prophet’s headlines, Delphini was able to infiltrate the Ministry and steal the fabled True Time-Turner, in order to resurrect her father. She was able to use her skills in legilimency to trick Diggory into thinking she was his kin before using her powers on Hogwarts’s students to aid her in her plan.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Two notable students that she entrapped were none other than Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter, whose parents have now claimed their sons were some of Delphini’s first victims when it came to her legilimency powers. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The Daily Prophet can confirm that the rumors are true regarding Delphini’s pursuit of a new prophecy that would circumvent her father’s ultimate demise. However, she was thwarted by the Minster herself, Hermoine Granger, along with Harry Potter, and many other notable witches and wizards. Subduing her and handing her over to authorities where she is in the process of being transported to Azkaban Prison for her crimes.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>When asked for comment on the location of the True Time-Turner, Minister Granger informed the Daily Prophet that it is:</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Safe, somewhere secure. We are still trying to make sure that no lasting damage was done during the unsanctioned travels taken by this individual.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Daphne’s mouth hung open as did those around her. It was quiet for a beat and then the classroom erupted into chatter. People were on their own phones, calling their family members or texting anyone they thought might know something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the fuck?” Trevor said, shaking his head in disbelief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What does any of this mean, and why weren’t we told about it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Does this mean that </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> can be brought back? How do they know she wasn’t successful?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because Harry Potter stopped her, just like he stopped Voldemort before. At least this time he didn’t stab her like he did her dad,” Trevor replied back to the hysteric classroom, confidently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He didn’t stab him, he used a killing curse, idiot,” Elise replied rolling her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, he stabbed him and--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--And his pet snake,” Daphne finished for him, looking up at him with wide eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, that’s what--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your dad said. Trevor, have you ever told me that before?” Daphne asked, rising from her seat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm, no I don’t think so. Weird, anyway, I’ve got to go, the guys on the pitch will want to hear all about this.” Trevor collected his belongings and was out the door. Daphne was still glued to her spot. Something was wrong, very wrong. She had to speak with Trelawney, immediately. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This could change everything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Who knew what this Delphini girl had uncovered or altered. Perhaps she had disrupted enough in the timeline so all of Daphne’s hard work was now for not. She couldn’t breathe. All that time could be wasted, all that preparation, for nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne had not felt like this in a long time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unsure of herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whatever was going on across the sea would make landfall here by the evening. The hallways were already abuzz with it. Even at dinner that night it was all anyone could talk about. Headmaster Fontaine had done his best to quell everyone’s concerns but even he did not have much information for his students.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“During times like these,” He had said, “it is important to remain calm and rely on your friends. In the end, regardless of time, they are all we truly have.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then he had been off and the gossiping had started back up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It seemed like Sybil’s disappearance was finally being put on the backburner. Which was fine for both Cosi and Daphne who packed their things after dinner and made their way to the carriages to be taken into the nearby town.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That is crazy. Just absolutely crazy. A Time-Turner, Voldemort, what the hell is going on?” Cosi had muttered as they were packing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just can’t believe it. If mum were here, she would have seen this coming. Maybe she did and that’s where she is, maybe she helped them stop that Delphini person before she could do any real damage.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne had nodded her agreement and they rode the carriages to the cottage in silence. Without Sybil, the cottage seemed empty. Sure the charms still held and unseen forces saw to the floor-sweeping and the dishwashing but that spark that made it a home was gone. Cosette yawned and stretched her arms above her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m beat, I think I’m going to turn in early. Maybe tomorrow we can have a look around and see if Mum left a clue behind. Night, Daph, thanks for staying here with me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, Cosi, goodnight love you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Love you,” she responded heading down the hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne collapsed into one of the large leather chairs in the living room. A book on unforgivable curses lay on the end table next to her. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. How many times had she found herself in this exact room over the years? With Sybil behind her, giving her another book to read, another spell to know, another family tree to memorize.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Daphne let herself, she could recall everything from those summers and how even now, she wondered if it all was going to be worth it.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. A Locked Door Needs a Key</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Daphne experiences some PTSD from abuse from a former foster family. Not graphic, but if this is something that upsets you, read at your own discretion.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>May 31st, 2017</p><p>“Try again,” Sybil said calmly, taking a long sip from her teacup.</p><p>Daphne still laid flat on the ground staring up at the wooden ceiling, breathing heavy. They had been at this for hours. Second-year had ended last week and just like before, Daphne was sent home with Trelawney and Cosette. </p><p>For Cosi, she was under the impression that her mother was trying to tutor her friend. She busied herself during the day by doing her own research in the garden as well as going into town frequently to brush up on No-Mag culture for the course she would be taking in the fall. She had talked Daphne’s ear off the night before listing all the things she found strange about No-Mags.</p><p>While Cosi seemed to be having the summer of her life, Daphne was in pain.</p><p>It seemed like everything hurt these days. Trelawney had ratcheted up their training tenfold this summer. Her wand arm was sore for the spells Sybil was making her practice from sunrise to sundown. They had only just resumed their training a few days ago and Daphne was not sure she would make it to the end of the month. </p><p>Let alone until school started again.</p><p>Along with her arm, her head was pounding. It was like all the reading she was doing was filling up her brain and there was no room left. She was bursting with information and they had only scratched the surface.</p><p>Daphne let out a deep breath and sat up, wincing slightly.</p><p>“Now dear, let’s try again, focus. Think of your mind like a room and you need to keep the door shut. Jacob when you are ready.”</p><p>Daphne shuddered and turned her attention back to the elderly man Trelawney had introduced her to a few days ago. His hair was mostly white, a few wisps still held their coppery color, his face was deep with wrinkles and laugh lines, jowls drooping when he would smile. His eyes were terrifying. </p><p>On the surface they were average. Plain and brown and unassuming. But those eyes had glimpsed her mind and naked soul. </p><p>They had seen everything.</p><p>“Begin,” Jacob said crisply, and then it started.</p><p>Daphne tensed and prepared herself for his assault.</p><p>It was absurd to think that the most painful thing she had ever experienced required no <em> physical </em> contact at all. Jacob was a skilled legilimen, even in his old age he could reduce his victim to nothing more than a prostrate figure, hyperventilating on the ground. It was such an odd gift, to be able to slip into someone’s mind, but Jacob could do it. </p><p>And he was doing it now.</p><p>Daphne could feel it, and was powerless to stop it. <em> Her mind was a room, her mind was a room, her mind was... </em>It always started out like a tickle, something fuzzy in her brain that was making her thoughts cloud. She rotated her neck trying to clear it, her vertebrates snapping with the motion. </p><p>And then it would start. </p><p>Every memory, every thought was flying by. She was locked in the room that was her mind, but Jacob was there too, standing in the corner, watching out the window as her thoughts rushed by. A glimpse of her fifth birthday when she had spent it in the adoption center. </p><p>Her time she had spent with her fourth family that had made her pray for hours on end. They had been so strict, so strict. She saw herself remembering things she had longed to forget. </p><p>Jacob was pushing them toward her.</p><p>Daphne was back in that bedroom. Could feel the carpet under her toes. The crosses on the wall, the Bible on the floor. She was being shoved back into the closest. The door being locked behind her, scratching and clawing, not knowing how long she would be stuck in there this time.</p><p>“Please, please let me out!” She heard herself scream. </p><p>She was locked in there now too, again. Staring across from a red-eyed Daphne, whose blonde hair was limp and clung to her tear-streaked cheeks. She had been so small, so frail, underfed. Her hands began to shake, she heard the familiar voice call through the door.</p><p>“The Devil is in you child. Pray to God to save you. Pray for your soul. I will allow no agents of the Darkness in my home!” The mother, she was, <em> she was </em>...</p><p>“No please, I didn’t do anything. Please he’s lying!”</p><p>“Silence! Wait until Mr. Brown gets home, and I inform him of what you’ve done.”</p><p>Mr. Brown, <em> Mr. Brown </em> ...the belt, the screaming, the praying, the crying... <em> the pain </em>.</p><p>
  <em> This wasn’t real, this isn’t real, fight it and get out. </em>
</p><p>Daphne’s eyes flew open and in the dark of that closet, she knew she had a choice. To remain paralyzed by fear or to have the courage to fight back. The other Daphne in the closest did not know her true self. The depth of her own power. She was scared of everything, but <em> this </em> Daphne had a chance to save her.</p><p>“I see him now, heathen, he will be in here to deal with you shortly!”</p><p>That grating voice drove Daphne to her feet, no longer cowering with herself. She pushed at the door, slamming it over and over again.</p><p>“I am not afraid. I am not afraid, I am not. Let me out. Let me out, let me out.”</p><p>Repeating it over and over again, she slammed her shoulder into the wooden door. Throwing her whole body weight into, the block was mental, not physical. She had to believe she could get through the door and she would. She willed it to let her out, screaming and crying, slamming into it over and over until she was sure her shoulder had dislocated.</p><p>“This isn’t real. I am in control!” She shouted.</p><p>With one last effort, she crashed through the door and out into the light, momentarily blinded. She reached out with her mind and found the invader. <em> Jacob </em>. He had to go, or it would happen again. With every drop of strength she possessed, she pushed him out. Until her mind was quiet. </p><p>Until she was once again alone in her mind. She could lock the door, she did not need a key. The key was her.</p><p>“Well done,” Trelawney said, as Daphne returned back to her physical body. “You were not able to keep him out, but you were able to remove him. You are improving.” </p><p>Daphne collapsed back onto the ground, her head pulsed and throbbed.</p><p>“You did well. For someone so young, I am impressed. But I am going easy on you. Someone who actually wanted to do you harm wouldn’t have let you push them out like that. Not without inflicting some damage before they did.”</p><p><em> Great </em> , she thought, <em> just when I felt like I had made headway </em>.</p><p>“Tomorrow we will go over Voldemort’s early life and his initial years at Hogwarts. Please have those two books I gave you last night finished and memorized by breakfast. Jacob, I will walk you out.”</p><p>Daphne remained on the floor, the sound of the floorboards creaking as the two others left, felt like kicks to the head. They shuffled out slowly and they paused by the front door. Assuming they were out of earshot, Daphne could just make out a whisper of their conversation.</p><p>“Too young, Sybil, too young. I don’t know what you’re planning, and frankly, I don’t want to know.”</p><p>“No one ever agrees with me. But I know what I’m doing must be done.”</p><p>“Is whatever this is worth it? Pushing that child too far knowing she may break? Can you live with yourself if she does?”</p><p>“I’ve lived with many things over the years Jacob,” Sybil paused. “There are some things that must be done whether we like them or not.”</p><p>Daphne could not follow the rest of their conversation as they moved outside. </p><p>In her mind, she could still picture that closest, the itchy carpet, the light seeping under the door. She had not thought about the Browns for a long time. Six months she had spent in their care if one could even call it that. </p><p>It felt like a lifetime.</p><p>Sighing, she remained on the floor looking up at the ceiling. She wanted to ask Sybil more. About her destiny, about what all of this meant, about why she had to train like this. It was hard not to be resentful when Cosi and so many of her other classmates were off having a break from their studies, while here Daphne lay. Feeling cut open and vulnerable.</p><p>Exhausted and <em> used </em>.</p><p>Did she even have a choice when it came to these lessons?</p><p>What if she asked to stop? Would Sybil send her back to be in the system? Would that be better than being here? Daphne didn’t know. And she was always too afraid to ask. Maybe one day she would be brave enough, but that day was not today.</p><p>She pulled herself and trudged to her bedroom. Cosi was still out and it was quiet. Early afternoon sun still peeking through the window. She picked up the large book on her nightstand and began to read. And read, and read until Sybil called her for dinner. </p><p>All night she stayed like that until she knew everything about Tom Riddle, and his studies, and how he became the most feared Dark Wizard. </p><p>She read until he was all she knew.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Enough is Enough</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>June 20th, 2018</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And who betrayed the location of the Potters to Voldemort, which led to their deaths?” Sybil asked, looking over the edge of the book she was reading from. They had been at this for hours. Quizzing Daphne about everything from 1940-1981, she was exhausted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This summer, Trelawney had informed her, they were to focus more on events, than skills.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Umm...Sirius Black? And then he went to Azkaban for it before escaping,” Daphne replied unsure of herself. He had been there for twelve years. He had betrayed their location, then when he got out he joined with...Dumbledore? Oh wait, she knew her mistake and cringed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wrong,” Sybil said simply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, wait I know it. Peter Pettigrew betrayed them and framed Sirius Black. Then he spent twelve years as a rat until he was discovered living with the youngest Weasley boy. I know it, I do.” Daphne did not want to start over, that was Sybil’s usual punishment for when she messed up a question they would start again from the top. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And go until however late Sybil though appropriate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t know it, or you would have answered correctly. We will start over.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, please. Please! I know it, I do, I don’t want to start again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trelawney looked at her with an expressionless face, silently turning the book back to the beginning and fixing Daphne with a pointed stare. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had had enough. What did any of this matter? Killing herself to memorize all of these things and what was the point? She had a destiny but she had no great desire to fulfill it. Why should she keep pushing herself for something that did not even concern her?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In 1926, who gave birth to Tom Riddle, who would later become--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Enough, I have had enough,” Daphne said sharply. Sybil fixed her with another stare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did you say?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne took a deep breath. Letting all the anguish she felt consume her. She was done, she had reached her breaking point and it was too late to turn back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said I have had enough. I am done, learning all of this stuff. I want to stop.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want to stop?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil paused for a moment as if considering this and shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t, now back to my question in 1926 who--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Enough!” Daphne screamed. She had snapped, she had finally snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leaping up, Daphne took the heavy book she had been holding and let it slam to the floor. Seeing red, her eyes began to cloud with tears. Crying out of pure anger and frustration. It was too much, she needed to stop it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything seemed to be slipping through her fingers. So much pent up rage, so much frustration, she had to let it out. She had to find a way to express it before she exploded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not doing this. I don’t care about destiny, or fate, or whatever reason you want to give me about this. It’s killing me, learning all of this. I am done with this. Can’t you see that? Look at me,” Daphne said, exasperated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You cannot be done,” Sybil said calmly. “There is still much to learn.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’m not learning it, so send me back to the foster home, send me back to the school. I can’t stay here, I won’t stay here. Do you hear me? I am done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I cannot send you back. You must stay here and I will train you. You cannot stop.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” Daphne screamed, it felt good to scream. “Why do I have to do this? Why does it have to be me? If you know so much why don’t you do it? Aren’t you listening to me? I want nothing to do with any of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Setting the book down Sybil stood, crossing the room over to Daphne. She stopped directly in front of her meeting the young witch’s glare. Sybil sighed and shook her head as if deciding something then and there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are not alone in this risk. Know that. There is much I wish to tell you. Perhaps you are ready to hear some of it.” Sybil crossed the room, sinking into the large leather care. A teacup flew across the room, sensing its owner was in need of refreshment. Daphne sank to the floor, peering up at the older witch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When I was your age,” Sybil began, sipping her steaming cup of tea. “I knew I was not like other witches. Just like you know you are different from them. You can see things and do things others cannot and you hide it. Scared what would happen if they found out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne was quiet, reflective. She had been so careful to hide the speed at which her magic was growing. She felt limitless with her powers. Even Jacob had commented on it during their last session. He said she had to be the strongest legilimen he had encountered in a long time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Certainly the youngest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No longer could he slip into her mind. In fact, it was him now who had to work diligently to keep </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My destiny became quite clear when I got older. I was the first witch in my family that had had a </span>
  <em>
    <span>Seeing </span>
  </em>
  <span>in years. The first one who had declared a prophecy. A prophecy that got so many killed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yes, Daphne knew this. She had read of Sybil’s famed prophecy about Harry Potter. When news had reached Voldemort he had dispatched his supporters to find the baby and kill him. James Potter had been killed. While Lily had protected her son, sacrificing herself so that he may be spared to fulfill his destiny.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a tragic tale with a small silver lining. Harry had defeated the Dark Lord but at a great cost. A massive loss of life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wonder what would have happened if I had kept it to myself. Would the Potters have lived to raise their son? Would someone have found another way to defeat Voldemort, instead of putting that burden on a child? So many questions, so many answers we may never know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne looked up at Sybil whose eyes had seemed to unfocus like she was remembering something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one prepared me. Perhaps if I had known all that would come to pass I would have kept it to myself. For you, there is the luxury of history of knowing everything, for me I had nothing and no one. Many were scared of me, of what I could see and do. Many will be scared of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But why?” Daphne interrupted. “Why do I have a part in any of this? Voldemort is dead. What does my destiny have to do with any of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Evil like that, my dear. Never really dies. And a part of him still lives. Lily’s sacrifice saved her son, but Voldemort got something as well. A part of his soul is still in Harry Potter, a part that will never die until he does. There may come a time when he is old and frail that someone will seek him out and recapture that part of the Dark Lord’s soul and bring him back. No prophecy this time to save us.” She looked thoughtfully down at Daphne.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sun was setting, Cosi would be returning home from the town soon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But, I still don’t understand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one ever truly understands their destiny, why they were chosen. I thought I was done being involved in the affairs of wars and wizards. After my divorce, I was ready to throw away all hopes of happiness, of a family. Then I found him, my man, my muggle who I lived with for a time in England. I found out we were going to have Cosi and we were so excited. He used to work in the West End and loved the theatre. Had been in Les Mis a dozen times. He was always Marius and he was determined to have his own Cosette. He was lively, just as eccentric as me. He was my everything. The happy ending I did not deserve.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne sensed the story was about to take a turn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I had not had a vision or practiced magic in a few years. He was out one day, picking up something for me, I can hardly remember. I was very pregnant, walking around our flat when it happened. Almost brought me to my knees. It was like slipping into an ice bath. The despair choked me.” She paused, taking a breath. “I knew he was dead. All those years of trying to reach into the beyond, of seeing things that I never wished to, it seemed the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fates</span>
  </em>
  <span> could not grant me the basic courtesy of showing me the demise of my lover, so that I may prevent it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The old witch paused again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought it was my punishment. The magic seeking revenge for me turning my back on it. I had done its bidding and then when I was no longer willing to, it took what I cared for most in this world. But I was just as foolish then as I was decades before, thinking my vision of Harry Potter would be a force for good. How mistaken I had been.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne was reeling, not sure what to say. Sybil had just told her so much, but what did any of it have to do with her? What did any of that have to do with Daphne's destiny?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And then, that next day, I had my vision of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The young witch’s eyes flew open, as she stared into Trelawney’s brown eyes. Fathomless and all-seeing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I knew I had to find you and help you. Prepare you. All the mistakes of the past could be undone if only someone would help you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I get you have been trying to help me. But help me with what, exactly?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Everything. My vision was not clear when it came to you. They so rarely are now. But it did show me that you are the key. But it gave me a purpose. To help you, was what I had been preparing for all my life. So, I apparated over here. Had Cosi all alone and began researching. I double-checked everything I had been shown and now I’m sharing that with you. So that you may have a chance to save us. To fix my mistakes, to fix all our mistakes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And how will I do that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“By stopping Voldemort before he has a chance to meet Harry Potter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t understand.” Daphne was reeling from all of this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I can’t tell you yet. It won’t make sense. But all I ask is that you keep this fire. You will need it. This is bigger than the both of us. So many lives saved, you can change everything. And it all starts with them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil handed Daphne a book from the shelf. It was covered in dust, the edges fraying and the lettering on the front had been worn off. From what she could make out it said:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black: A History from 1920-1996</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There is a member of this family who died too young. He’s the key. Save his life and you will save us all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But if he’s already dead, how can I save him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sometimes the answers for the future lie in the past. I will arrange a way to get you to him, by whatever means. Once you find him, he is your mission. If you are successful then everything will be as it should. This is your destiny. To save those who would be lost.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But why me? Why does it matter, if they are already dead?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because they did not need to die. You can right that wrong. If you succeed they will be here to save you. To save Cosi, to save us all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne was still lost. She seemed adrift in a sea all alone, her destiny threatening to drown her. Sybil reached out and patted her knee. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll take that. The fire you have. You’ll need it to prevent what could still occur.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What have you seen?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I cannot tell you yet. In time all will be explained. For now, read this and learn all that you can while we still have the summer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne nodded rising from the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I take it, you no longer want to leave.” Daphne shook her head no, clutching the book to her chest. “Good, I am glad to hear it. We need you. You are more important than you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Considering this, Daphne thought about what Sybil had just said. To keep her friend safe she had to do this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who am I supposed to save, Professor?” Daphne asked, gesturing the book.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil considered the question and seemed to find no harm in answering her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Regulus Arcturus Black. Younger brother to Sirius Black. He was the first to discover Voldemort’s Horcruxes, learn all you can about him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But how--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne was cut off by the front door flying open and a pink-cheeked Cosette strolling in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good evening, I am starving, you’ll never guess what I learned about the No-Mags today. It seems that they only...” And Cosi prattled on in her reassuring way. While the walls seemed to be closing in on Daphne, Cosette was always there to offer normality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She clutched the book tighter, who was this Regulus Black? And why was Sybil so adamant their paths needed to cross? </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Love, the Greatest of All Things</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>September 7th, 2020</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a chill in the air when Daphne awoke that Saturday.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something was going to happen today. Not knowing what, she turned on her side and looked across the room. Cosi was still asleep, face-up, mouth slightly parted. Wild hair curling on her pillow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So peaceful, so blissfully unaware.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne snatched up her heavy quilt and padded softly across the room. Flopping down beside her friend, startling her awake, before Cosi groaned and moved over. They had not done this since they were kids, but it just felt right to Daphne that morning. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There had definitely been more room in this twin bed when they were kids.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Morning Cosi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Morning Daphne.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s cold this morning.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe fall’s coming early this year. I wouldn’t mind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me neither.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two girls gazed at each other, heads resting on the same pillow. Something in Daphne’s gut told her that this would be the last morning she had with her friend. She had to savor this morning while she could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you remember in our third year when Katie Crouch was such a bitch to you? God, she was awful, her whole family was awful.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosi giggled remembering the end of that argument.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I remember she called us both mudbloods and then you hexed her to have mushrooms growing out her ears. Mistress Rosworth couldn’t get them to stop growing for a week. Pretty sure that was the reason she transferred,” Cosi commented.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good, and I would do it again. That pureblood bullshit...it’s so stupid,” Daphne replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know it is.” Cosette gave Daphne a small smile, they had had this conversation before. Katie had been the most vocal before her departure, but the idea of blood purity was sometimes brought up at Ilvermorny. Not as prevalent as it was at other schools, but it was still there, like a dark cloud over the campus.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seeping in through the walls. Whispered about behind closed doors.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many Katie’s do you think are out there?” Daphne asked. Cosi furrowed her brow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You mean wizard’s who still believe in blood purity? A lot, I’m sure. People with those ideals don’t just go away. Especially when just over two decades ago they thought they would get their way. Why do you ask?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne sighed knowing that as much as she wanted to tell Cosette everything, it would only put her friend in more danger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you ever wonder about what would have happened, had there been no Voldemort? No second war?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sometimes, do you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All the time,” Daphne breathed, careful to keep her words vague. “I think that if someone could’ve done something to stop it, they should have. If someone can do something now, then they must. Don’t you think?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosi sat up, jostling the small bed they were in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure, but you would have to go back in time for that. And I’m not too sure a different outcome would even happen. Look at what happened with that Delphini girl, I bet she thought she was going to make a difference. Right past wrongs done to her family, and now look where she is. Locked up in Azkaban, with no chance of getting out.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was fighting for the wrong things. What if someone could do something now, fix the mistakes of the past? Don’t you think they should at least try, no matter the cost?” Daphne checked herself again. Keeping her friend in the dark was a cruel and unusual punishment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Daphne, why are you asking me this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need to know what you think,” Daphne said back simply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I think someone has a moral obligation to correct past wrongs? I couldn’t say. I know that if it was me, I would do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And there it was, the truth. Cosi would do what was right and so would Daphne. To keep her friend safe, to keep her world safe, she would do it. Even if it meant never getting to see the other girl again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If she were to fail it would mean the end of everything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know you would. My brave friend,” Daphne cooed, her arms going around the other girl. “So fighting against the forces of evil you will do, but when Katie Crouch pulled your hair you were content to cry, while I did all the heavy lifting. You didn’t even visit me during my month-long detention if I recall.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne wiggled her eyebrows at the other girl, who tried to wrestle free from her friend’s grasp. Playfully shoving, she shook her head laughing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You bitch, you know I was a shy kid. Besides, you were always there to protect me, I knew you would keep me safe from the Katie Crouch’s of the world.” The two girls fell back on the bed, arms still around each other, breathing softly. It was going to be a beautiful morning. Daphne committed it all to memory so she would have something to take with her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wherever she was heading she knew a memory like this may be the only thing that grounded her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I always will. The Katie Crouch’s better watch out, or I’ll hex them all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My psycho best friend, whatever would I do without you?.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Die probably.” Cosette laughed at that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“True, good thing I’ll always have you then,” Cosi agreed, resting her head on Daphne’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Always.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you’ll always have me.”</span>
</p><p><span>Daphne smiled at her friend, a mischievous glint in her eye.</span><span><br/></span> <span>“And if we both sleep with Jason Matthews this year. He’ll always be a part of us too.” Cosette smacked her friend and began to laugh.</span></p><p>
  <span>“You are so gross Daphne, but I love you anyway. I think I’m the only one who can.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I love you too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stayed like that, clutching each other on the bed too small for two, shaking with giggles until the sun had fully risen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Looking back, Daphne had been right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been their last morning together.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. To See With One’s Own Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>see notes at the end of the chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>June 28th, 2017</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They were tracing genealogies, family trees of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Pureblood wizarding families that hoarded their families' power and money. All deeply embroiled in the beliefs of Lord Voldemort, blood supremacy. That the mingling of wizards and No-Mags was a capital offense. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That it went against the very laws of nature.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, they would hate me. I was basically a No-Mag for eleven years, I wouldn't be surprised if I was a half-blood, myself,” Daphne had remarked coldly. Trelawney had been engrossed in her own studies. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe that’s why she had said it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Be that as it may, my dear. You’re as pureblooded a witch if I’ve ever seen one. Your lineage is as deep and as old as that snakewood tree. Older than many of the Twenty-Eight, that’s why you were chosen...''Trelawney trailed off, marking something in the book with her quill.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne felt the blood leave her face and her hands began to shake. Pureblood, pureblood...what? Trelawney must be mistaken, there was no way that she was...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know who my parents are, Professor? You’ve always known?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil snapped her head up at that. She had said too much but there was no going back now, Daphne would not let her. With the determination in her eyes alone, Sybil knew not to shy away from her question. Not to try and placate her with half-truths. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Only complete honesty would satisfy Daphne’s racing heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, my dear, I do know. I have known. I met them once, your parents. A long time ago now. Just before you were born. You look like her, your mother. Their magic was strong, like how yours is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So they were both magical?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, from old pureblood American families.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But pureblood families were...</span>
  <em>
    <span>evil</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In all her readings, that was the one glaring factor. Sure, you had some exceptions to the rules. The Potters, the Weasleys, the Prewetts, all good pureblood families who fought for what was right. Maybe that is what they had been like. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least that is what Daphne had hoped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see that look in your eyes child and it was not like that. I do not need to be a legilimen to know what you are thinking. They were good people, your family, your parents were quite kind. Modern even, your father worked with muggles. Beliefs in blood supremacy are not as strong here, since so many witches and wizards come from all over. Not to say there is none of it, but less so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was a good sign. She should ask more, but it seemed as if all the questions Daphne had been dying to know for years simply slipped from her mind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My, my parents, are they...? Do they know where I am? How come they gave me up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The answer was in Trelawney’s eyes. An answer that Daphne was not sure she would ever be ready to hear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They are dead my dear, that is why you ended up where you did. Merlin knows I tried to find you. After I met Rionach Mason for the first time, I told her of my vision. She was alarmed, rightly so I suppose. She told your father and they thought it best to keep me away from you. Their family lines were old...but not strong. They were both headstrong, a tad foolish it seems now.” Trelawney sighed, setting down her book.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne swiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand. Tears were dripping onto the open pages in front of her, smearing the ink.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did they, when did they...” She couldn't bring herself to say it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Love is powerful but it can make us nonsensical. Rionach Mason and Jeremy Wilcox loved each other, that you should know. The Masons and the Wilcoxes were old families here, but over the years their lines had dwindled. Both of them only children to elderly parents, they married while still at Ilvermorny, both sets of their parents would not live to see them graduate. That had to be what decided them. Two children themselves, all alone, only each other to rely on. So they did something that never should have been done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what was that?” Sybil looked up and stared intently into Daphne’s eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They made an unbreakable vow, that if one should die so should the other. They could not bear to think of the other one alone, with no family. It was reckless and it was dumb. I’m sure they forgot about it over the years. They mentioned it to so few people, it only came out later, much later, but at that point you had already been given over to the No-Mags. By the time I found out, Fontaine barred me from intervening. Said I should let you have some form of normalcy before all of this begins.” Sybil shook her head, frizzy hair fanning out around her. “The years we lost because of that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne looked at the old witch and willed her to return to her tale so that she would know once and for all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jeremy Wilcox was struck by a car and killed, coming back from work one day. Your mother knew what that meant, that no matter what she did her vow would demand payment. So she left a note near your crib. Explaining the vow, but to the muggles, it was just an unfortunate occurrence that left you parentless. They called it something, I can’t remember now.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trelawney headed into the kitchen where a hot cup of tea was already being poured for her.  Drinking deeply she continued her story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your cries were heard by the muggle neighbor who called the authorities. No next of kin, no legitimate ID, they didn’t know what to make of you. Daphne wasn’t even your real name, but they didn’t know that. The neighbor gave it to you, along with the last name of some actor from a TV show she watched. She was too old to care for you longer than a few months.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And do you know my real name, Professor?” Daphne was shocked, how she had managed to even formulate a question she did not know. Her head was spinning, threatening to overwhelm her she steadied herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course I do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you never told me this before? You or the headmaster, who knows all about this. And my question is why? Why if you knew for so long how you could keep this from me? When I am preparing to risk my life for your cause, you don’t even have the decency to tell me about my dead parents. How is that fair? How is any of this fair?” Daphne screamed. She was shaking, with anger, with sadness, with overwhelming loss.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why me, why me, why me</span>
  </em>
  <span>...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not fair. Life rarely is.” Daphne thought about throttling the old witch. How could she have lied to her for all of these years, knowing all that she did? Was Sybil someone she could trust? After all of this, Daphne was not so sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why should I believe you? After everything, after the years we have spent together, preparing me for my </span>
  <em>
    <span>destiny</span>
  </em>
  <span>, you could not even tell me who I was. The Heir of Slytherin means nothing to me, but I went along with it because I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was doing what you wanted!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It means everything, my dear.” The old witch fixed her with a stare. “Now ask me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Daphne replied. “Ask you what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The thing, you want to know most after what I’ve just told you. If you are to face the Dark Lord, you will need to learn to conceal your desires more. I can practically read it on your face. So ask me, ask me so I can finally tell you. You are ready to know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her breath felt like swallowing knives. But she knew what Sybil wanted her to ask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s my real name?” Trelawney smiled, softly, glowing, almost as if this secret had been weighing her down all these years. This was the reveal she seemed to have been waiting for.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your family was old. Like I said. Related to the founder of Ilvermorny Isolt Sayre. A direct descendant of Morrigan. A direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin. Isolt’s mother was a Gaunt, killed by Isolt’s aunt, who wielded Salazar Slytherin’s wand. The wand you now possess dug out from the very depths of the snakewood tree, where Isolt had placed it all those years ago.” Trelawney took a deep breath. “Your mother named you Evelyn, after a distant relative. If your family tree is to be believed, which I have no doubts about now, then it is only right to go by your family’s true surname. The one that has put you on this path. Led you to me. Led you to all of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wilcox?” Daphne whispered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trelawney shook her head slowly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gaunt. Evelyn Gaunt is who you should be. She is who you will be. When the time comes you must decide, you must be ready to cast Daphne LeBlanc aside forever. Can you do that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne, or Evelyn rather, thought. Thought about it all. What would her parents think of her? Would they be proud of her? Why had they been so selfish to make that vow? To leave her here like this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It made no difference now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She knew she had come too far, sacrificed too much to simply walk away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>#</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>July 16th, 2019</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The prophecy had revealed itself to Daphne in a similar way. By accident.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though this time it wasn’t a slip up on Sybil’s part, but rather Daphne who had ventured too far. Her legilimency had become like a second nature she was often unaware of when she was doing it. In the middle of a conversation, she would catch herself inside a person’s mind. Hearing things she was not meant to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She did it so frequently she had to remember to make it seem natural, not to disturb anyone’s thought progression when she did. It was the best way to practice and remain unseen. To sneak out of someone’s mind as carefully as you had snuck in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Sybil stood at the kitchen sink, it had happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was like walking into a room and suddenly you were in that person’s mind. Seeing what they saw, feeling as they did. Sybil’s mind was a maze, hard to find your way through. A variety of emotions and colors, what were memories, and what were predictions swirled together to create a timeline of events. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jumbled and disjointed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sucked into it, Daphne allowed herself to be pulled under and submerged in Sybil’s mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was dark in Sybil’s head, like staring up at a starless night sky. She would wander and wander until she had found it. Everyone was different, but each person had a part of their mind that would reveal all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was wrong to pry, Daphne knew. She was trespassing, but it called out to her like a beacon. Legilimency was dangerous both for the user and the used. It was a seductive gift that ensnared you to use it more and more. To burrow into a mind deeper and deeper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then she saw it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shimmering mass, like a great white stone that pulsed with information. She had never seen a thought like it before. Because it wasn’t. It was no mere memory or experience, it was something that had yet to happen. Something Daphne was too tempted to see.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reaching out a hand she touched it and was pulled in:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>An apartment in a city, a young couple. A baby, with clear blue eyes and a crop of blonde hair. A flash, a young girl now, alone, picking a wand in Ilermorny’s hall. Familiar brown curls, hunched next to the blonde child.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Those blue eyes looking up, morphing into a young woman. Daphne, her face coming through. A bronze necklace, spinning out of control. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Another flash, a voice on the wind, unseen but swirling around her, commanding.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Find her and bring her to us. To undo what has already been done, the true Heir must face the false one. Lives lost can be lives reclaimed. The purest of hearts will come from the purest of bloodlines. He who had been the first to die will be the first to live. Save the innocent, unjustly convicted. Uproot the tree so that it may grow. Kill what has yet to be born. Unmake what has already been made.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The wind picked up, swirling around her faster and faster, whipping her hair. She could not see she could not breathe. Only flashes of images before her. Muddled sounds. Snapped off fragments of sentences. They all flew around her like shards of glass.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Happy scenes, friends dancing in a dorm, sleeping on shared couches and in shared beds, kissing in corridors, holding hands, quidditch matches, cheers, feasts, full moons, secrets, lies, and love. So much love, she could taste it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There was darkness too. Lurking around each good moment. Like an inkblot on a page. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She saw herself, in a dark cave. Looking down at a small basin of black liquid. A locket around her neck.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Don’t do it.” A voice, deep and serious.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“What choice do we have,” She said, picking up a cup on the lip.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“It will change you, you cannot come back from this.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Then so be it.” The image was ripped away, the briefest glimpse of a strong jaw and thick black hair, the towering figure behind her. Her voice sounded colder than she had ever heard it. That was her future, that is what she must do.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She was choking on the air around her. No sooner did she gulp some down it was pulled out of her lungs. Was this how she died? By stumbling upon Sybil’s darkest vision, Daphne’s own fate. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And then she heard it again, that voice.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“To fail against the dark will mean the end. No prior salve will cure this wound. That which once grew will fester and decay.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She saw it then. The mountains of bodies, petrified and stiff, stacked on top of each other. A great castle loomed up ahead. The clouds were dark, the ground was bones. She was there, lying with her eyes opened, dead. Hand grasping that of another buried under more bodies. A scarred face boy lies next to her, a baby still in its mother’s arms, dead.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Despair was in the wind. She saw Cosette up ahead, alone. She sank to her knees and wept, sadness poisoning the air until she could no longer breath. Choking on it all.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He stood above them all. Lord Voldemort.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>His hood was back revealing his smooth skin, his serpent face. Evil, rotting, bloated with power. Drunk on death. It was over and he had won. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This was what she had to prevent. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She could not fail. This was what was to come, not what had happened. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This was not real, not real, not real, she was strong, she had to fight. She still had the chance to fight. She just had to get out of here and fast. Reaching out she grasped something. It was warm and welcoming and she pulled it toward her until she hoisted herself up and she was out...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She slammed back into her body. Still in the cottage, Trelawney was still at the sink as if nothing had happened. To Sybil nothing did happen, it was Daphne who was doubled over breathing heavy. The horrors that she had seen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To prevent it, she had to prevent it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A clattering at the sink brought her back to the room. Sybil turned, her old eyes appraising the young witch before her. Smiling slightly she inclined her head</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I take it you saw the prophecy. Saw what you must do. What will happen if you fail.”</span>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne looked up and saw that it was going to be time soon. All of the preparations had been made. Sybil seemed to study her for a moment as if seeing her for the first time. She knew it too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Knew that she was ready.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was horror in that vision, death, and despair. But there had been love too, a love that she had felt before with Cosette, a love that she would die to protect.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne nodded at the old witch and slumped back into the wooden chair.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hi everyone! I know this was kind of a long chapter but I'm so glad I got to reveal this much of the story to you all. The final chapter for part one is up, please make sure to let me know what you think!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. All the Way Back</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>see chapter notes at the end :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>September 7th, 2020</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dusk was falling at the cottage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne and Cosette were curled up on the threadbare couch sipping mugs of herbal tea. They were both exhausted, having searched the house from top to bottom looking for clues on Sybil’s whereabouts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, Cosette had, Daphne had not been as eager.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She knew the search would yield nothing, and she had been right. Sybil was still missing without a trace. Headmaster Fontaine had owled them to ask if there were any updates, to which the girls had written back saying everything was the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had wandered into town for an early dinner. Eating at one of the local diners along the main road. Like two normal girls, sharing fries and milkshakes on a Saturday night. Maybe the patrons thought they would be off to some party with other teenagers, or walking the streets late at night without a care in the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe if they had been No-Mags they would have been.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just can’t believe she’s been gone this long,” Cosette muttered into her cup. She had an old quilt tucked up around her, dark brown curls were coming loose from the bun atop her head. Daphne nodded her agreement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’ll be back. I know she will, I just don’t know when,” Cosette went on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sybil would never abandon her daughter, Daphne knew that. Whatever became of her, Sybil would always be there for Cosette no matter what. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a sound above the house, like distant rumbling. Something like thunder, but not quite...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is it supposed to rain?” Daphne asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think--”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>FLASH!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The fireplace in the cottage, sparked green flames, coating the living room with thick black soot. The two girls jumped back, tangled in blankets, shattering their teacups and knocking over the couch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A figure emerged from the ash, hunched over, caked with dirt and debris. It turned toward them, revealing its wild hair and familiar eyes. It was Sybil, she had returned at last. She was clutching something to her chest and was breathing hard. There was a cut along her eyebrow, a small rivulet of blood was sliding down her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mum!” Cosette screamed, rushing the figure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is no time, Daphne, there is no time! They will be here any moment you must go!” Sybil waved her wand wildly, muttering a spell Daphne could not hear. The cottage locked down, the windows slamming shut, the doors bolting shut, the fireplace sealed, being fortified with magic. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So much magic, it hung in the air. Thick and powerful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get the trunk quickly!” Sybil shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What trunk? Mum where have you been, I’ve been so worried. Me and Daphne we have been--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosette was cut off by another boom, coming from above them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sound stopped right outside the front door, then the banging began to start.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sybil Trelawney, I, the Minister of Magic, command you, open this door, you are in direct violation of statute...” The shrill voice shrieked, followed by countless </span>
  <em>
    <span>Alohomora-s</span>
  </em>
  <span> to unlock the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Accio</span>
  </em>
  <span>, trunk,” Daphne commanded, waving her wand. An ancient leather-bound contraption shot from the nearby closet and stopped at her feet. It held everything she was going to need. It was time. She was leaving.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This moment had come sooner than she thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had to make the choice, it was now or never.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Trelawney, I order you to open this door. You do not know the consequences your actions will have!” A thunderous voice came from the other side of the door. Whoever was out there was slamming things against the cottage door now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The oak door groaned and was beginning to lift off the frame. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They would get in soon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, Daphne now! You are ready, ready as you will ever be. Take this,” Sybil shouted, rushing Daphne, and throwing something around her neck. The necklace from the vision, bronze, and glittering, a small sand timer in the center. “Hurry, forty-three twist should get you there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne’s hands shook as she twisted the pendant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mum! Daphne, stop! What is going on? Who are these people, what have you done? Daphne, what are you doing?” Cosette shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Enough child, Daphne is fulfilling her destiny. She has been planning this for years.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cosette looked over at Daphne, hurt flashing in her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve never told me about this, what destiny?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I couldn’t Cosi, it wasn’t my choice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve lied to me, all this time?” The words ended in a choked sob.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I never wanted to,” Daphne responded. The sound coming from the other side of the door was getting louder. </span>
  <em>
    <span>37, 38, 39, 40...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“How could you, how can you leave me? Where are you going? What is--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door was splintered, exploding into a million fragments. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go!” Sybil shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Halt!” A figure commanded coming into the cottage. His forehead scar caught on the gas lamps in the living room. It was as if time had slowed, everything for a moment was clear. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daphne looked into Cosi’s eyes, slammed her hand down on the trunk, hooking it to her arm, and twisted the Time-Turner one final time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you, Cosi,” was the last thing she said, before being sucked into darkness, where she fell, and fell, and fell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her screams filling up the empty space she was flying through.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Wow, wow, wow! And just like that, we are at the end of part one. I will be updating you with the next part soon ASAP. Can you guess what year we are going to next? This is where the bulk of the story will take place. As always thank you all so much for reading, make sure to leave a review or leave Kudos on this work if you enjoyed it. It is also available on Wattpad if you prefer reading on that platform! Much love &lt;3, Emma!</p><p>p.s. also make sure to follow me on TikTok @charl1eswansong, for more updates :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>